Party Girls Don't Get Hurt
by bambi1994
Summary: Non!Magical AU: Lacey French, a top selling sales associate at Mill's Inc, has an embarrassing video of her go viral and enlists the help of Mill's Inc marketing expert, Calder Gold, to help her revamp her image.


A/N: Hi, uhm I don't even know how to explain this fic tbh lol I've been wanting to write something Lacey-centric for such a long time and this idea popped into my head and I couldn't stop myself. I'm going to say now that this story is highly influenced by the show Selfie because I absolutely adore it and thought the modern day plot the show was taking of My Fair Lady. This whole show literally makes me so happy and I couldn't resist twisting it to fit into a Rumpledlace fic.

Lacey French had finally done it. She had finally gone viral, more viral than she was used to, but it was for the worst possible scenario she couldn't even imagine. The way she went viral too was far from what her mind could even dream. The small confines of the airplane bathroom only allowed her so much room to clean herself up from the current viral video fiasco.

"Why couldn't it have been some sex tape of me that went viral? Lord knows there's probably one of me somewhere, but that's less embarrassing than this. I could've had my Kardashian moment," she muttered to herself while she peeled her soaked dress from her body. The dress wasn't soaked, per se, a more direct way of describing it was covered in chunks of partially digested oatmeal and traces of bile. Flying on planes for business trips would always make Lacey queasy, but she could typically work through it by taking a nap on the plane or talking with someone. Typically that someone would be her current sexual partner, considering Lacey had already made her way through most of the company's single men, but this one had been different.

Lacey had been working up the guy, Jefferson Hatter, for a few weeks now. He hadn't exactly diverted from Lacey's flirting tactics, and she took that as a good sign to continue. Besides most men would usually fall for her the second she paid them any attention, so it was safe to say that she was all the more confused when Jefferson hadn't jumped her like all the others the second she was making herself willing. It wasn't until today when she overheard from a snooty co-worker, Bonnie Peep, that he was married.

The fact hit Lacey like a train when she confirmed it today on the plane when she sat next to him and saw the wedding ring on his finger. She wondered why she didn't notice it until now — granted he didn't have it on when she was around him, but that didn't mean anything to Lacey from past experiences — but Jefferson didn't exactly say anything to her about it either. It was even worse since it wasn't just some rumor that Bonnie had started to get to her head after she had the confirmation right in front of her.

The sickness that she had had under control was starting to bubble up in her throat. Her mouth was quickly filling with saliva as Lacey hurriedly searched for the airplane's complimentary barf bag. As soon as the paper sack was opened in her hands, her mouth had instant contact with the dry sack, and it was the most action she had seen since she had been trying to get together with Jefferson. It wasn't the ideal makeout session she had planned for her to be having on the plane ride, her preferred makeout partner sitting beside her horrified, but at least she hadn't thrown up on him.

Once her vomiting had stopped, another barf bag added to her first one, Jefferson had suggested that she go find an empty seat outside of the first class section so the awkwardness could subside. Lacey agreed, reluctantly, and began her walk of shame back to the economy section where her other co-workers were seated. While she was walking back, someone had bumped into her and caused the barf bags she had been holding to rip open and spill their contents all over her expensive dress. Her mouth instantly dropped as she felt the warm chunks dripping from her midsection and down to her bare legs. Her initial thought was that she shouldn't have worn her favorite Channel black dress today, alongside her best pair of Louboutin pumps, until her vision was blurring. The sting of fresh, hot tears pricked her eyes, and reminded her to hold her tears back until she was in private.

Sudden camera flashes and laughter pulled her out of her mind and back into her current situation. Nearly everyone had their phones out and pointed directly at her. Lacey stalled for a second, immitating what a deer looked like in headlights, before she scurried off, her head ducked, toward the airplane's bathroom. The laughter and comments of how the video was going online immediately continued to ring behind her and filtered through the small space after she was safely inside.

Standing naked in an airplane bathroom was a whole new level of vulnerability for Lacey, one that happened few and far in between, but when one had an embarrassing video of them go viral every move felt vulnerable. With this current situation, Lacey knew her internet fame would take a major hit. She'd probably lose some of her twitter followers, her instabesties, the tumblr bitches, and probably have less likes on her Facebook page if that video got as many views as she was anticipating.

Lacey splashed some water over her exposed skin, trying her best to rid the stench of her own vomit from her body — not caring about her makeup — she had some spare makeup in her purse for touch ups anyways — and attempted to dry herself off the best she could in the confining space. She examined her somewhat clean body in the mirror, trying to figure out what to cover herself up with since her dress was nearly ruined now, Lacey pulled out her cellphone from her purse to see if she could find the video of her. Within seconds it popped up on every popular social network. Tears were beginning to brim at the edges of her eyes again while she continued to scroll and saw the views increase with each passing second.

A knock on the door made Lacey jump and she wiped away the few tears that had managed to slip past before opening the door.

"Uhm, Miss, you can't stay in here any longer. Others need to use the bathroom." the small flight attendant said.

"What should I do—" she paused, looking at the woman's name tag, "Goldie?" Lacey asked, not caring that she was standing before the flight attendant in her underwear.

"Well whatever you're doing, I'd keep doing it," Goldie replied.

Lacey stared at the woman, looking at her hands and how they were motioning toward Lacey's body, before continuing, "Thanks, those rumba classes were a good idea, but I meant what am I going to do about clothes? Do you have any emergency Channel on board I could borrow?"

"Ma'am, this is an airline, not a designer Paris boutique. We only have spare uniforms and—"

"That'll work. Bring me three of your best uniforms," Lacey said as she closed the door on the flight attendant.

She leaned against the plastic door, the cool plastic felt harsh against her heated skin, and sighed. This was going to require major instacontrol, she thought. Lacey looked down at her phone in her hand, watching the numbers gain at rapid pace.

Rapid knocks on the door kept Lacey from having tears slip past again, and she was met with Goldie holding three red flight attendant uniforms. She put up a brave face, not allowing herself to break down and cry in front of all these people, before taking the uniforms and slamming the door shut.

"Okay, Lacey. You can do this. Your fashion sense is far above anyone else's, and you need to stay strong. This is your Tim Gunn moment, gotta make it work," Lacey said. A snort mixed with a sob slipped past her lips, tears threatening to fall, and she threw the uniforms down in disgust on the small floor alongside her ruined dress.

This had to be some bad dream, a huge joke that some person in the office had to be playing on her, she thought. Lacey ran through a list of people who could've done this from the office, Bonnie hitting the top of this list, and she was surprised by how many people actually made it onto that list. She hadn't realized that she didn't have a single friend at work, but that was fine because she had plenty of other friends she could contact.

Lacey scrolled through her contacts, and clicked on Ashley's — one of her instabesties that she considered to be her irl bestie that happened to live close by — number to send a text.

_Oh mai gosh, major damage control sesh. :(( Can you meet me at my apartment when I get back from my business trip?_

She read the message over before clicking the send button. Furious knocking came from the other side of the door, and Lacey figured this was going to be her make it work moment even if she didn't want it. The red uniforms on the floor stared at her mockingly, and Lacey was going to make that pile of red fabric her bitch.

First thing was first, she couldn't walk out of here with the uniform on in what was considered its glory. Lacey may have just gone viral for all the wrong reasons, but she wasn't going to go viral for terrible fashion.

"As if," she muttered.

She draped the fabric from the uniforms — thankfully these uniforms that were far bigger than her actual size, so they could cover more area — around her body until she fashioned together a semi-decent dress. It'd have to do, she thought, and secured the fabric with spare bobby pins from her purse.

"If I was on Project Runway, Tim Gunn would be so proud of me," she said while looking at her handiwork in the small mirror.

More knocking came from the other side of the door with someone asking, "Ma'am are you done in there yet?"

"Give me a second, god, it's like you've never had to do major instacred damage control before."

Lacey heard a huff from the other side of the door, and she rolled her eyes. It was like none of these non-instafamous people knew what troubles she was dealing with, she thought. She shrugged it off and gathered her ruined dress and other belongings. As a final precaution, Lacey slipped her shades on — like it would even hide who she was since a good chunk of people on this plane were her coworkers — and braced herself for the world outside of the small airplane bathroom.

The moment she stepped out, everyone had picked up where they had left with the pictures and laughter. Redness returned to Lacey's cheeks while she tried to hurriedly slip past all the seats and into an empty seat. She seriously wished that it was a sex tape that got released instead of her own barf bag fail video. At least the first option, in theory, was something that she could've been more proud to have leaked.

She was finally able to slip into an empty row of seats — snatching a window seat — and able to hide from everyone for a few hours until they landed and eventually went back to work the following Monday. The laughter died down after awhile, everyone moving onto other topics of conversations, and Lacey checked her phone for damage control and if Ashley had texted her back.

_Oh no, that sucks! :( I'd totally meet you, but I have a thing tonight. I'm sure you'll be fine! It didn't seem that bad when I saw it. TTYL!_

Lacey stared at her phone in shock. She thought her and Ashley were besties — they followed each other on every social media account and that had to count for some kind of best friend. The fact hit Lacey harder than being laughed at by all of her coworkers and the internet for a mishap. Everybody would eventually forget about the fiasco, but this was something that Lacey couldn't forget. She tried contacting other people in her phone whom she considered friends, but all of them replied in a similar way that Ashley had.

It hit her that she didn't have any actual friends. She had been so caught up trading likes for likes that she had snubbed any potential friends who would've cared about her. Lacey knew she was a catch, and any of her followers would die to be friends with her in the real world, so it didn't make sense that none of these girls she considered her friends would snub her like this. She needed to do something about this, but she wasn't sure exactly what it was that she needed.

"Did you hear about Gold's campaign? He was able to take that failing stock and completely turn it around!"

Lacey's ears perked up when she heard her coworkers talking in a nearby aisle.

"Wow, didn't think it was possible, but he somehow did it. Is there anything that man can't makeover and give a new look to?"

Makeover, she thought. That was exactly what she needed. She didn't need friends right now — okay, that was an understatement, but not the point — she needed someone to help her re-invent herself after today's events and better herself. If what those coworkers had said was true — and from her own knowledge of Gold in their company — he was the man to help her with the task.

That was a conversation for Monday after Lacey was able to clean herself up and look more presentable than currently. She leaned back in her seat, satisfied with her plan, and fell asleep in the uncomfortable airplane seat.

A/N: So this fic has been sitting around for a long time now and I was itching to get it up lolol the YouTube fic will be updated soonish though (haven't forgotten about it) and WNM is still getting some love, that fic just takes a lot out of me since it's so serious haha. This one's just so much fun to write since I adore the show I got the AU idea from so much. Still sad it's cancelled and I keep hoping it'll get picked up for a second season sometime soon :c But on a happier note, I have a good chunk of this done/in the works so updates shouldn't be too long in between ^^


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